New York, Oct 5 (PTI): 'Queen of Pop' Madonna has revealed that she was raped at knifepoint in New York while she was still struggling to make it big as a singer.
The 55-year-old singer opened up about the horrific incident in a guest column of the November issue of Harper's Bazaar.
"New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms. The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back," Madonna said.
"And had my apartment broken into three times. I don't know why; I had nothing of value after they took my radio the first time," she revealed.
The singer gave up her dance scholarship at the University of Michigan to move to NY and in her column 'Truth or Dare', Madonna talks about how she survived the initial years and overcame moments when she was very near quitting.
"I was defiant. Hell-bent on surviving. On making it. But it was hard and it was lonely, and I had to dare myself every day to keep going. Sometimes I would play the victim and cry in my shoe box of a bedroom with a window that faced a wall, watching the pigeons shit on my windowsill. And I wondered if it was all worth it," Madonna wrote.
Madonna, who arrived in New York with just USD 35 in her pocket and a dream to make it big, says it is in her DNA to be daring.
"If I can't be daring in my work or the way I live my life, then I don't really see the point of being on this planet.